During college, Lauren Boggi was a cheerleader at the University of South Carolina—but after she graduated, she couldn’t find a fitness routine that was quite the same as cheering. "I was a Pilates instructor, and I just got bored," she says. "I ran into another ex-cheerleader who said, 'Do you find you just can't get the same workout?' and I was like, 'Yes!'" So Boggi decided to create a studio that put all of the best elements of cheer-based workouts into play—and Lithe Method was born.

The hour-long classes use a cardio-sculpt-cheer technique that Boggi created, and the studio has a system of resistance bands attached to the ceiling to add 12 to 15 pounds of resistance while you're doing the moves. "The method is quite intense, so you need a killer playlist to get through it," says Boggi, who puts together the choreography for classes first and then finds music that fits the routine. "It's got to feel right," she says. "I go on gut." Here's the mix she made for a recent class: